There was no statutory basis for systematic legal control of CCTV surveillance over public areas until March 2000 when the Data Protection Act came into force.

A CCTV Code of Practice was issued by the Information Commissioners Office (previously the Data Protection Commissioner) in March 2001 and has been updated with a revised CCTV Code of Practice in 2008.

The object of the Code is to help in ensuring that good practice standards are adopted by those who operate CCTV systems. By following this it allows them to remain within the law and also to foster public confidence in CCTV as a whole.

Maintaining the public's trust and confidence in the use of CCTV is essential in order that we can realise it's full potential but we need to make sure that it's use does not become viewed with suspicion and that we are accused of being a surveillance society.

CCTV Compliance Ltd fully supports the use of CCTV systems which are complying with the DPA - our aim is to support organisations to identify ares of weakness and resolve them.